Posted on 01/21/2012 8:25:17 AM PST by TBBT
Yesterday afternoon and evening, Impolitic attended his last two events of the South Carolina primary: a Mitt Romney rally at the Charleston Area Convention Center and a Newt Gingrich rally on the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier in the Charleston harbor. From their staging and attendance to the performances of the candidates, the events were a study in contrasts. And the differences between them tell you much about why, if the current polling and all the other evidence on the ground turns out to be indicative, Newt Gingrich is going to pull off a remarkable comeback and win tonight—and, in something like a heartbeat, turn the Republican nomination contest from a foregone conclusion into a wildly up-for-grabs affair. The Romney event was, let's put it bluntly, a sad and stale affair. The sole deviation from Romney-campaign-rally s.o.p. was a live band, which as I arrived was plucking out a mournful version of a song that fit the man and moment a good deal too perfectly: "You Can't Always Get What You Want." For a final Charleston event before the primary, and one that included the presence of South Carolina governor and Romney endorser Nikki Haley, the crowd was pathetically small—maybe 200 people. Romney's speech was the same generic one he has been giving all through Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Nothing about the event projected either confidence in winning or urgency about fending off Gingrich, and certainly nothing about it conveyed the air that the man on stage is the national frontrunner.
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
Mittens flat...
Nobody (except, maybe his wife) in the GOP really WANTS Romney.
Lots of people hate Newt, don’t know much about Santorum, and let’s face it...Paul is a joke. That leaves Romney. Not a good beginning for a nominee.
Mitts loses in November.
and on to Florida! I am so hyped! GOOOOOOOO NEWT! WOOT WOOT!
Mitt didn’t carry a single southern state in 2008; I don’t know why his campaign thinks anything is going to change that.
He’s likely going down to defeat.
It’s slipping for Mitt. He lost Iowa, had a bunch of indies/demmies voting for him in NH (Rush said this week that only 47% of the NH GOP voters were registered Republicans) and the mask is off.
Newt response in the last debate was similar (IMO) to Regan saying “Mr. Green, I’m PAYING FOR THIS MICROPHONE!!”
Mitt has a glass jaw. The wheels are coming off.
I would think even Mittens could beat Obama.
This is an ideal storm. I sure wish we had put up a better group of candidates.
The fear I have with Mitt is that he won’t inspire a big turnout of conservatives thus we won’t win the Senate and might loose some house seats.
Hillary Romney.
Mittery Clinton.
The coming apart of the inevitable candidacy is an ugly thing to behold indeed.
Oh, ouch. LOL...
Reminds me of this.
In the beginning I thought we had a fine group of candidates. That has now changed and will not be able to vote for any of them in the primaries. So you folks work it out and whoever comes out of the Convention, I will cast my vote.
How sad!!
Talk about toast.
She might as well resign today.
Colts, meet Jets.
He’s likely going down to defeat.
Mitt won't carry a southern state in 2012, either.
But he almost certainly will carry the likes of California, New York and, probably, Illinois -- blue states with large GOP delegations...and each of them "Winner Take All".
That's Mitt's ace-in-the-hole.
Heh.
“Gingrich was plainly exhausted, but also evidently buoyed by his stunning surge in the previous 48 hours...”
This worries me. I keep reading reports of how tired Newt is — though all the candidates are probably tired.
When I saw Newt in NH a couple of weeks ago, he was exhausted. I even thought he might be micro-sleeping in between each handshake and photo. It was his 8th rally of the day, and his speaking and Q & A were fine. But I don’t think he can maintain the same pace from now to November. He needs more sleep once in a while.
Re: Even Mitt could win.
Don’t underestimate the media...they are going full out for Obama. It’s not just the “news” shows...all the morning talk shows (except Fox).
The media will slander and lie, and omit any good news about the GOP.
The Gingrich performance on the Yorktown was striking in other ways, too—especially as compared to that of Romney. For one thing, he offered an extended riff about the port of Charleston, his commitment to its modernization, and its pivotal place in the South Carolinian economy.
Yes, this is very well done by Speaker Gingrich.
Needless to say, this kind of spontaneity and forcefulness in the face of an unexpected challenge has not been Romney's forte. Indeed, he has faltered and stammered and looked woefully pained even in the face of questions that an eight-year-old would have seen coming from a city block away—such as King's at the debate regarding the number of years of tax returns he would eventually release.
It is surprising that Governor Romney doesn't have a strong canned answer to all tax questions.
God knows Newt Gingrich is a seriously flawed candidate. But his performance in South Carolina in the past week has been remarkable. [...] But Gingrich, as not just a former speaker but the man who engineered the first GOP House majority in 40 years, has plenty of Establishment bona fides, and way more conservative ones than Romney. And as his performance on the Yorktown showed, Gingrich is simply capable of being the bigger and stronger figure of the two—a pair of qualities that Palmetto State Republicans value enormously.
Yes, Speaker Gingrich is excelling at this most critical juncture.
For as skillful as Gingrich's performance has been this week, Romney's has been screamingly lousy, bordering on disastrous.
Good. Governor Romney quit quite early in 2008, and I am hoping that he does the same this time around.
The Newt Express train will be heading to Fl on Monday.
For as skillful as Gingrich's performance has been this week, Romney's has been screamingly lousy, bordering on disastrous. The implications of all this extend beyond South Carolina and even beyond Florida, which, again assuming Gingrich prevails today, is all but certain to be an epic and bloody battle.
That says it all about Mittens' performance in the last two debates. From here on there's no logical way anybody with at least two functioning brain cells can argue that he's the "most electable" of the pubbie candidates or, indeed, that he's really electable.
He's become the weakest of the four, and done so by his own blunders.
For example, if he'd understood his audiences in the last two debates, absolutely essential for a world class politician like Reagan or Clinton, he'd have won major points by saying he'd release his tax returns once the Illegal released all of his records. Mittens might have even countered Newt's great wins and gotten standing Os for himself. Worst of all, Rush had even suggested he do just that and Mittens didn't.
IOW he doesn't hear as well with his natural hearing as Rush does with a cochlear implant.
In related news, USS Romeny Concordia passengers exiting the foundered flounder.
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